The Society of St Augustine of Canterbury exists to promote and advance the Roman Catholic Religion in England and Wales with its key aim to help with the maintenance of a fund whose capital is used to assist with the expenditure and upkeep of Archbishop’s House, the official residence of the Archbishop of Westminster.

13th June 2017 – Visit to Stonor Park

On a beautiful Tuesday in June, 30 members and guests made a most enjoyable private visit to Stonor Park where we were greeted by the owner, Lord Camoys, head of the family that has occupied the house and the surrounding rolling Chiltern landscape for more than eight centuries.

Knowledgeable guides gave us a tour of the house, pointing out the development of the property from the original 12th Century hall. Thankfully, many original features remained because of the financial and other penalties suffered by the Catholic Stonor family which prohibited refurbishment of the type undertaken in other large houses in the area.

Mass was said in the Stonor family chapel by Canon Richard Hearn, Dean of St. George’s Cathedral, Southwark, reprising the role he played in the Society’s visit to Canterbury Cathedral in 2015. We were particularly grateful to him because he had to miss lunch and the tour of the house to return to London for a meeting occasioned by the terrorist acts of the previous week. Canon Richard said he welcomed the opportunity of saying mass in the chapel, following in the footsteps of St Edmund Campion and other dedicated priests of the Reformation era. During mass we remembered our fellow member Claude Kauffmann who had signed up for the visit but sadly died the week before.